Tag Archives: Black History Month

SundanceTV is celebrating Black History Month and the 40th Anniversary of the original Roots miniseries from 1977 with a four-day event.

Beginning on Saturday, February 25th, the network will air the original Roots miniseries and its 1979 sequel, Roots: The Next Generations.

Frequently named as one of the most important works in scripted television in history, “Roots,” won 9 Emmy® awards, a Golden Globe award, a Peabody award, and still stands as the most watched miniseries in the U.S.

Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise and Smokey Robinson: Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song are among the many programs that PBS has slated to air during Black History Month.

Emmy-winning docuseries Independent Lens will air two important installments – Birth of a Movement (based on the book The Birth of a Movement: How Birth of a Nation Ignited the Battle for Civil Rights by Dick Lehr) and Accidental Courtesy (an African American musician befriends members of the KKK).

The second season of PBS original Civil War series Mercy Street will premiere in February. Set in Alexandria, Virginia and the Mansion House Hospital, one of the themes it explores is the role that African Americans — including slaves, free blacks and contraband (African Americans who fled slavery in the hope of securing their freedom behind Union lines) — played in the hospital and the city.

Other exceptional related programs include The Talk – Race in America and Africa’s Great Civilizations. Premiere dates, times and More detailed program descriptions follow the break.

WGN America’s critically acclaimed new series, Underground, will be screened at the White House on Monday, February 22nd as part of the White House Office of Public Engagement’s Black History Month event, These Hallowed Grounds.

Prior to the screening will be panel discussions with the “Underground” cast and creative team, including executive producer John Legend, creators and executive producers Misha Green and Joe Pokaski, executive producer Akiva Goldsman and director and executive producer Anthony Hemingway, and stars Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Aldis Hodge, Christopher Meloni, Alano Miller, Jessica de Gouw and Amirah Vann. The panel event will be live streamed at WhiteHouse.gov/Live, beginning at 5:30 p.m. ET.